Multi-Region Processing System and Heads

ABSTRACT

The various embodiments of the invention provide for relative movement of the substrate and a process head to access the entire wafer in a minimal space to conduct combinatorial processing on various regions of the substrate. The heads enable site isolated processing within the chamber described and method of using the same are described.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a Divisional application of U.S. application Ser.No. 11/965,689 filed Dec. 27, 2007, with a Notice of Allowance datedApr. 12, 2011 which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes. This application claims the benefit of U.S. application Ser.No. 60/970,500 filed Sep. 6, 2007, which is incorporated by reference inits entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Semiconductor processing operations include forming layers throughdeposition processes as well as removing layers, defining features(e.g., etch), preparing layers (e.g., cleans), doping or other processesthat do not require the formation of a layer on the substrate. Inaddition, similar processing techniques apply to the manufacture ofintegrated circuits (IC) semiconductor devices, flat panel displays,optoelectronics devices, data storage devices, magneto electronicdevices, magneto optic devices, packaged devices, and the like. Asfeature sizes continue to shrink, improvements, whether in materials,unit processes, or process sequences, are continually being sought forthe deposition processes. However, semiconductor companies conduct R&Don full wafer processing through the use of split lots, as thedeposition systems are designed to support this processing scheme. Thisapproach has resulted in ever escalating R&D costs and the inability toconduct extensive experimentation in a timely and cost effective manner.

While gradient processing has attempted to provide additionalinformation, the gradient processing suffers from a number ofshortcomings. Gradient processing relies on defined non-uniformity whichis not indicative of a conventional processing operation and thereforecannot mimic the conventional processing. In addition, under gradientprocessing, a moving mask or shutter is generally used to depositdifferent amounts of material (or dopant) across the entire substrate ora portion of the substrate. This approach is also used for a depositionsystem having a carousel of targets which may or may not be used forco-sputtering purposes. In each of these systems, the uniformity of theregion being deposited, as well as cross contamination issues whenperforming more than one deposition process render these techniquesrelatively ineffective for combinatorial processing.

Thus, an improved technique for accommodating the evaluation of multipledifferent process variations on a single substrate is provided to moreefficiently evaluate the viability of different materials, unitprocesses, or process sequences.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a deposition system andmethod for combinatorial processing. Several inventive embodiments ofthe present invention are described below.

In one aspect of the invention, a deposition system having a radiallyarticulating process head disposed within the deposition system isprovided. The radially articulating process head is capable ofdepositing a layer of material onto regions of a substrate. In oneembodiment, the regions are site isolated regions of the substrate. Thedeposition system may include multiple radially articulating depositionheads disposed over a substrate surface. In order to have access to theentire substrate surface, the support on which the substrate rests isconfigured to rotate or linearly move the substrate. The process head iscapable of being used for cold plasma operations where a base of thedepositions head acts as a cathode and a shield surrounding a sidewallextending from the base acts as an anode. In another embodiment, ashowerhead of the deposition head is adjustable relative to a distancefrom a substrate surface. That is, the showerhead is adjustable in az-direction independent of the movement of the deposition head in orderto adjust a process volume.

In another aspect of the invention, a process head has concentricallyplaced conduits configured to deliver a deposition fluid to a surface ofa substrate through an inner conduit and provide exhaust for thedeposition fluid through a cavity defined between an outer wall of thefirst conduit and an inner wall of the second conduit. In oneembodiment, the bottom surface of the inner conduit and the bottomsurface of the second conduit are co-planar. The process head optionallyincludes a third conduit surrounding the second conduit. The thirdconduit provides a fluid barrier preventing the deposition fluid fromflowing outside a perimeter of the third conduit. In one embodiment, thefluid acting as the fluid barrier is exhausted through the secondconduit. The first, second and third conduits may be concentric around acommon axis.

In yet another aspect of the invention, methods for site isolateddeposition are provided. The methods deposit regions of material onto asubstrate through the process heads described herein. In one embodiment,a gaseous deposition fluid flows through an inner conduit disposed overa portion of a substrate. Contemporaneously, a vacuum may be applied toa defined cavity surrounding the inner conduit to withdraw fluid acrossa bottom surface of the inner conduit and into the defined cavity. Acontainment fluid may optionally flow through an outer conduitsurrounding both the inner conduit and the region encompassing the innerconduit in one embodiment. A film is deposited onto the portion orregion of the substrate and this may be repeated for another portion orregion of the substrate. In another embodiment, a method for depositinga film on a site isolated region of a substrate is provided. In thisembodiment, a showerhead within a showerhead assembly is moveable so asto adjust a volume of a processing region defined between the showerheadassembly and the site isolated region of the substrate. A depositionfluid flows through the adjusted showerhead to deposit a film on thesite isolated region of the substrate. In one embodiment, excessdeposition fluid and deposition by-products are removed by providingvacuum to a confined area surrounding the showerhead assembly.Accordingly, through the embodiments described herein multiple sites ona substrate may be combinatorially processed, either in parallel,serially, or a combination of parallel and serially, to provide data onalternative process sequences, material, process parameters, etc.

Other aspects of the invention will become apparent from the followingdetailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of theinvention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be readily understood by the followingdetailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, andlike reference numerals designate like structural elements.

FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating a processingchamber in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified schematic diagram showing additional details formovement of the articulating head in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 3 is a top view of the chamber of FIG. 2 in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4A is a simplified schematic diagram of a system having a rotatableprocessing head and a moveable substrate support in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4B is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating one exemplarycombinatorial region pattern enabled through the embodiment of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5A is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating a process headconfigured for combinatorial processing in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5B illustrates a processing head that may be utilized for aphysical vapor deposition (PVD) process in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a top view of a process/deposition head for combinatorialprocessing in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating a cross sectionalview of the process head of FIG. 6.

FIG. 7-1 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating a bottom surfaceof an outer ring of the process head of FIG. 7 in more detail.

FIG. 8 is a simplified schematic diagram of a substrate that has beencombinatorially processed with isolated regions in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 a simplified schematic diagram illustrating an integrated highproductivity combinatorial (HPC) system having a process head configuredfor combinatorial processing in a process chamber of the system inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The embodiments described herein provide a method and system forprocessing of a substrate in a combinatorial manner. It will beapparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present inventionmay be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In otherinstances, well known process operations have not been described indetail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.

The embodiments described below provide details for a multi-regionprocessing system and associated process heads that enable processing asubstrate in a combinatorial fashion. Thus, different regions of thesubstrate may have different properties, which may be due to variationsof the materials, unit processes (e.g., processing conditions orparameters) and process sequences, etc. Within each region theconditions are preferably substantially uniform so as to mimicconventional full wafer processing within each region, however, validresults can be obtained for certain experiments without thisrequirement. In one embodiment, the different regions are isolated sothat there is no inter-diffusion between the different regions.

In addition, the combinatorial processing for a substrate may becombined with conventional processing techniques where substantially theentire substrate is uniformly processed (e.g., subjected to the samematerials, unit processes and process sequences). Thus, the embodimentsdescribed herein can pull a substrate from a manufacturing process flow,perform combinatorial deposition processing and return the substrate tothe manufacturing process flow for further processing. Alternatively,the substrate can be processed in an integrated tool, e.g., a clustertool, that allows both combinatorial and conventional processing invarious chambers attached around a central chamber. Consequently, in onesubstrate information concerning the varied processes and theinteraction of the varied processes with conventional processes can beevaluated. Accordingly, a multitude of data is available from a singlesubstrate for a desired process.

The embodiments described herein are directed to various applications,including deposition, which includes physical vapor deposition (PVD),chemical vapor deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD), reactiveion etching (RIE), cold plasma depositions, as well as otherapplications, such as etch, doping, surface modification or preparation(e.g., cleaning processes or monolayer depositing), etc. It should befurther appreciated that the embodiments described below are techniquesoptimized for combinatorial processing of a substrate. The movement of arelatively small (as compared to the overall area of the substrate)region defined through a processing head, along with the rotation of thesubstrate enables access to the entire surface of the substrate.Alternatively, the processing head may be rotated in a circular fashionand the substrate may be moved in a relative x-y direction to enableaccess to the entire surface by the processing head. In otherembodiments, both the processing head and the substrate may be rotatedaround an axis, where the axis may or may not be a common axis, or theprocessing head and the substrate may both move in a linear (XY plane)manner. A single head or multiple heads may be included on a moveablearm that can radially scan across a surface of the substrate to enableserial (one head at a time), serial-parallel or fast serial (multipleheads at once that repeat processing to cover the various regions on thesubstrate) or parallel (using sufficient heads to process all of theregions at once) processing. In the parallel processing embodiment, therotation enables different processing by region through the rotationwherein each processing head implements a different process over adifferent region, or as another alternative, the same process isimplemented in each processing head with reliance on the rotation of thesubstrate to create differently processed regions on the substrate.

In one embodiment, a moveable head is configured to create a plasma inan isolated region, which may be referred to as a processing region,above the substrate thereby avoiding the need for masking. While maskingis generally not required, the various aspects of the invention alsowork with masks and may in some situations improve the isolationcapability and tolerances mentioned below. In another embodiment, amoveable head configured to enable site isolated ALD for a substrate isprovided. One skilled in the art will appreciate that ALD, CVD, and PVDare not limited to deposition processes. For example, ALD can be used toperform a doping process in one embodiment. More particularly, bydepositing one monolayer or less per deposition cycle, the ALD processcan be used as a form of doping. In another embodiment, the PVD and/orALD processes can “etch”. One skilled in the art will appreciate that bychanging process gases, e.g., where a process gas reacts with thesubstrate, an etch process may be performed, as compared to a processgas that deposits material onto the substrate.

FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating a reaction chamberin accordance with one embodiment of the invention. Reaction chamber 100includes substrate support 102 and process head 104. Substrate support102, which may be an electrostatic chuck or other chuck, is configuredto rotate. In another embodiment, substrate support 102 may movelinearly within chamber 100. Process head 104 is configured toarticulate in a linear direction radially above a surface of substrate112, which is disposed on substrate support 102. In one embodiment,processing head 104 may move in two dimensions in the plane abovesubstrate 112. In another embodiment, bellows 106 provides a seal tomaintain the integrity of the chamber as process head 104 articulates.One skilled in the art will appreciate that by configuring substratesupport 102 to rotate at least 180 degrees and having process head 104capable of moving across a radius of substrate 112, all positions oversubstrate 112 are accessible to process head 104 for combinatorialprocessing. In one embodiment, substrate support 102 rotates at least185 degrees to ensure complete coverage. In another embodiment,substrate support 102 rotates 360 degrees. In addition to moving in alinear direction parallel to a surface of substrate 112, deposition head104 can move in a Z direction orthogonal to the surface of a substrateresting on substrate support 102 in order to place the head over theregion to be processed and/or vary the height of the process head to thesubstrate, which in turn varies a volume of the processing region, asdescribed further below. In this manner process head 104 may be used toadjust a process volume defined between a process head and a surface ofthe substrate.

Fluid supply 108 is configured to deliver fluids to process head 104. Inessence, fluid supply 108 delivers process gases suitable for anydeposition process executed through process head 104. Of course, toaccommodate the movement of process head 104, the delivery lines fromfluid supply 108 may be flexible. Drive 114 provides for the linear (XY) and orthogonal (Z) movement of process head 104 within reactionchamber 100. One skilled in the art will appreciate that drive 114 maybe any suitable drive, such as a linear drive, worm gear, etc. Inaddition, drive 114 or a separate drive may control the orthogonalmovement, which is independent of the linear movement. Exemplary drivesmay include linear slides driven by stepper motors on lead screws,pneumatics drives, servo drives, rack and pinions assemblies, etc. Inorder to create a plasma, power source 116, e.g., radio frequency (RF),DC pulsed, microwave, etc., is coupled to process head 104. Controller110, which includes a central processing unit (CPU), memory, andinput/output capability, controls the processing within chamber 100. Inone embodiment, a recipe contained within the memory of controller 110will be executed by the CPU for processing within chamber 100.Controller 110 is configured to control power supply 116, drive 114,fluid supply 108, and other aspects of the reaction chamber for thecombinatorial processing operations. In another embodiment, separatecontrollers may be utilized for each component and a general purposecomputer can control the operation of the separate controllers through aprocessing recipe.

FIG. 2 is a simplified schematic diagram showing additional details formovement of the articulating process head in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. In FIG. 2, an alternative sealing mechanismfrom the bellows of FIG. 1 is provided. Within FIG. 2 process head 104is supported by arm 120 (also referred to as a post) which is affixed tomoveable top plate 124. In one embodiment, arm 120 extends through topplate 124 and an end of the arm is connected to a drive that providesZ-direction movement. A seal is maintained between arm 120 and moveabletop plate 124 to maintain the integrity of the processing chamber as thearm lifts and lowers relative to a surface of the substrate andotherwise moves. Moveable top plate 124 may be slideably disposed overbearing support surface 128 and o-rings 126. Bearing support surface 128is a surface disposed on chamber top 122 which guides moveable top plate124 so as not to cause excessive pressure on o-rings 126. While onebearing surface is illustrated in FIG. 2, another bearing surface may beprovided across the opening of chamber top 122 in order to supportmoveable top plate 124 on both sides of the opening. The bearing surfacemay consist of ball bearings, pneumatics, hydraulics, etc. In oneembodiment, the chamber is at an ultra high vacuum, e.g., 10⁻⁸ or 10 ⁻⁹torr, while the region between o-rings 126 is pumped down to a milliTorrvacuum range. The pumping of the space between o-rings 126 can beaccomplished through channel 130 that enables access for a pump to thespace defined between o-rings 126. For example, channel 130 may bedrilled through the upper plate of the chamber to enable access to pumpthe space defined between o-rings 126.

FIG. 3 is a top view of the chamber of FIG. 2 in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. In FIG. 3, top movable plate 124 includesposts 120 for supporting a process head within the chamber. While thereare two posts 120 for slideable moveable plate 124 in FIG. 3, it shouldbe appreciated that any number of posts and corresponding process headsmay be disposed on the slideable plate. O-rings 126 provide a sealbetween the vacuum of the chamber and the outside atmosphere. Drive 114for moveable plate 124 may include any suitable linear drive, worm gear,etc. in order to articulate the posts 120 and corresponding depositionhead for movement above a surface of a wafer for the combinatorialprocessing. Additional drives connected to the top of posts 120 for theZ-direction movement are not shown for ease of illustration. The processhead 104 (not shown) can be any number of different process headsdirected to various applications, including deposition operations, whichincludes physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition(CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD), and other applications, such asetch, doping, surface modification or preparation (e.g., cleaningprocesses or monolayers depositing), etc. Several different embodimentsof the process head are described in more detail below.

FIG. 4A is a simplified schematic diagram of a system having a rotatableprocessing head and a moveable substrate support in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. Process head 104 is supported by arm 120within clamber 100. Arm 120 is configured to move in a verticaldirection (Z articulation) and rotate about an axis. An axis of processhead 104 is offset from the axis of rotation around which process head104 rotates. Substrate 112 is disposed on substrate support 102.Substrate support 102 is configured to move in a vertical direction (Zarticulation) as well as linear articulation in an XY plane. In thismanner, isolated regions of substrate 112 may be combinatoriallyprocessed. In one embodiment, multiple process heads may be attached toarm 120. In another embodiment, multiple arms may be provided withinchamber 100.

FIG. 4B is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating one exemplarycombinatorial region pattern enabled through the embodiment of FIG. 4A.Substrate 112 has isolated regions 109 defined thereon. Isolated regions109 may be regions that are combinatorially processed where one of or acombination of materials, unit processes or a process sequence is variedacross the regions. As illustrated in FIG. 4B track 111 is one exemplarypath followed by process head 104 of FIG. 4A. However, one skilled inthe art will appreciate that the embodiments described herein willenable numerous other patterns through the rotational movement ofprocess head 104 and planar movement of substrate support 102, such asthe exemplary pattern shown in FIG. 8.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate simplified schematic diagrams of a processhead configured for combinatorial processing in accordance withembodiments of the invention. Process head 104 can enable several dryprocesses, including plasma based systems (e.g., PVD, its variants, orcold plasma) as illustrated in FIG. 5B or other gaseous fluid basedsystems (e.g., ALD or CVD, or similar variants) as illustrated in FIG.5A. While these types of heads are explained in detail, other heads thatsupport additional processing schemes can be adapted from these heads orcan replace these heads. Process head 104 is a cylindrical shape inaccordance with one embodiment, but can be any other geometric shapes,such as quadrilateral, oval, pentagon, etc. The process region on thesubstrate, also referred to as a site isolated region, can be defined bythe reaction chamber, e.g., on a blanket or patterned substrate throughthe process head, or the process region can be predefined on thesubstrate (e.g., through test structures, die, multiple die or othertechniques).

As shown in FIG. 5A, sidewall 152 defines an outer wall of the processor deposition head and in a top region of process head 104, valves 154provide fluid to plenum 156, which distributes the fluid to showerhead158. The combination of showerhead 158 and plenum 156 may be referred toas a showerhead assembly or process head assembly. A seal between theshowerhead assembly and sidewall 152 is provided by o-ring 160, whichalso enables movement of the showerhead assembly without breaking thevacuum. The showerhead assembly can also be permanently affixed tosidewall 152 in one embodiment. In this embodiment sidewall 152 can bemoveably sealed with outer wall 170, e.g., through an o-ring or othersuitable seal enabling slideable translation to allow for movement inthe z-direction. Vacuum may be applied through outer region 168 in orderto remove process by-products from processing region 162. Plenum 156 andshowerhead 158 may both be moveable in a vertical direction relative toa surface of substrate 164 in order to change a processing volume withinprocess region 162. As the showerhead assembly moves, outer shield 170and sidewall 152 remain stationary so as to provide a barrier to isolatethe deposition to a region of substrate 164. Of course, sidewall 152 maybe moveable with the showerhead assembly being either stationary ormoveable. In an alternative embodiment, inert gas, e.g., argon,nitrogen, etc. may be fed into an annular space 168 to help maintainisolation of the processing to region 162, defined between sidewall 152,the showerhead assembly and a top surface of the substrate. In thisalternative embodiment, exhaust would be provided through anothermechanism, such as another opening, e.g., portals in the showerheadassembly, or other suitable techniques.

FIG. 5B illustrates a processing head that may be utilized for a PVDprocess in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. Process head104 includes similar features as described with regard to FIG. 5A andfor the sake of redundancy some of these features will not be describedagain in detail. Process head assembly 157 may include a target for thePVD process while gas inlet 149 delivers the process gas from gas source151 for the PVD processing. A plasma can be struck within region 162 inorder to deposit material on a surface of substrate 164, which isdisposed over electrostatic chuck 166, or other known substratesupports. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the plasma withinregion 162 may be sustained by direct current (DC), DC pulsed, radiofrequency (RF), inductive coupling, microwave, etc. A cavity, alsoreferred to region 168, defined within outer shield 170 is maintained ata lower pressure than the plasma region deposition chamber in the plasmato entrap or collect the unused or reacted materials and gases.

In one embodiment, a center cathode is contained within process head104, e.g., a base of process head assembly 157 functions as a cathode,and outer shield 170 would function as an anode, e.g., when performing acold plasma processing operation, where a stable gas plasma jet isgenerated near room temperature at atmospheric pressure. In thisembodiment, a vacuum is not necessary within the plasma region. Inaddition, it should be apparent that in one embodiment, a vacuum neednot be applied to cavity 168 within outer shield 170 as the entirechamber 100 may be at an appropriate operating pressure and outer shield170 prevents processing materials from spreading outside of process head104 into the main chamber to avoid impacting other regions. Outer shield170 may be electrically floating or grounded as required by thecombinatorial processing.

In yet another embodiment, outer shield 170 may be resting against a topsurface of substrate 164 in order to provide a seal against a topsurface of the substrate to isolate a region of the substrate forprocessing and prevent inter-diffusion of deposition materials betweenregions. Of course, outer shield 170 may move orthogonally relative tothe surface of substrate 164 so that a volume of region 162 may bemodified. In addition, the substrate support may move the substratevertically, as well as rotate the substrate in one embodiment. Thus, thevolume of region 162 is adjustable through numerous techniques under theembodiments described herein.

FIG. 6 is a top view of a process/deposition head for combinatorialprocessing in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. Processhead 104 includes two or optionally three concentric rings. An optionalouter ring 180 surrounds an intermediate ring 182 which in turnsurrounds inner ring 184, also referred to as a conduit. As will bedescribed in more detail with reference to FIG. 7, the region definedwithin inner ring 184 flows a process gas over a region of a substratedisposed below in order to deposit a layer on a portion of the substrateduring combinatorial processing operations. In one embodiment, theregion within inner ring 184 is about 43 millimeters in diameter toaccommodate typical test die sizes, but can be any size based on knowntest die or other design parameters. The region defined betweenintermediate ring 182 and inner ring 184 is used to evacuate or pump gasout from the deposition area defined within inner ring 184. That is, avacuum source may be connected to evacuate the area between an innersurface of intermediate ring 182 and an outer wall of the conduit forinner ring 184.

The region between optional outer ring 180 and intermediate ring 182 maybe used to flow inert gas, e.g., argon, in order to contain the productsand prevent contamination to other regions of the substrate disposedbelow the deposition head. If ring 180 is not included, the vacuum inthe annular space defined by ring 182 and 184 prevents the process beingperformed in the regions defined by process head 104 from impactingother regions on the wafer. While some gases or other fluids may escape,the amount of gas escaping will not impact the experimentation. If ring180 is not included, then regions on the substrate may be spaced furtherapart than if this additional layer of protection is provided within theprocess head itself. In one embodiment, the region between an innersurface of intermediate ring 182 and an outer surface of inner ring 184is approximately between one and ten millimeters. In another exemplaryembodiment, the thickness of each of the concentric rings isapproximately one to five millimeters. However, these embodiments arenot meant to be limiting as the thickness and distances between therings may be any suitable thickness dependent upon the application andprocessing being performed. The material of construction may be anymaterial suitable for deposition processes, such as stainless steel andaluminum.

FIG. 7 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating a cross sectionalview of the process head of FIG. 6. In FIG. 7, outer ring 180 preferablyhas less separation with the substrate than rings 182 or 184 and maycontact the surface of substrate 164. As set forth above, optional outerring 180 provides extra protection against leakage from the processingregion to other regions of the substrate than when only rings 182 and184 are included. As illustrated in FIG. 7, a process gas would flowwithin inner ring 184 and be evacuated through the intermediate spacebetween intermediate ring 182 and inner ring 184. Thus, gas would flowtowards substrate 164 within area 175 defined by inner ring 184, underring 184 and be evacuated by a vacuum acting within the area defined byinner ring 184 and intermediate ring 182. The process region is definedby inner ring 184, while intermediate ring 182 and optional outer ring180 provide buffer zones. The process volumes defined below the bottomsurfaces of inner ring 184 and a top surface of the substrate isadjustable by moving the process head vertically.

If outer ring 180 is not included, intermediate ring 182 may be closerto the substrate than inner ring 184, however this is optional.Alternatively, the intermediate ring can be touching substrate 164 inone embodiment. The spacing between ring 182 and substrate 164 may allowprocessing fluid (e.g., gases) to escape. To further protect againstthat, argon or some other inert gas may be used to flow within the outermost cavity or annular space 179 in order to further contain theprocessing byproducts. This inert gas would flow towards substrate 164in the outer cavity 179, under ring 182 and be evacuated by the vacuumin area 177 between inner ring 184 and intermediate ring 182. The inertgas will not impact the processing within inner ring 184 and the flowrate should be chosen to minimize any such diffusion into that region.As mentioned above, the materials used for the process head can bestainless steel, aluminum, or any other suitable metal compatible withthe plasma and gases used for the processing and deposition of layers onsemiconductor wafers. Where the surfaces of the deposition head contacta surface of the substrate, a polytetrafluoroethylene, such as TEFLON™coating or some other suitable non-reactive coating may be used on thesurface of the process head that contacts the surface of substrate 164.In one embodiment, the bottom surface of outer ring 180 is a knife edgeto minimize the contact area with substrate 164. FIG. 7-1 illustrates abottom surface of outer ring 180 where the bottom edge 181 is configuredas a knife edge.

FIG. 8 is a simplified schematic diagram of a substrate that has beencombinatorially processed with isolated regions in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. Substrate 200 includes a plurality ofregions 202 disposed thereon. Each of regions 202 is processed with oneof the process heads in the chamber(s) described above. Through the useof a linearly, radially articulating arm and the rotation provided by asubstrate support (or rotation of the head and linear (x-y) movement ofthe substrate, or rotation of both the head and the substrate, or linearmovement of both the head and the substrate) any pattern of siteisolated deposition areas may be defined on the surface of substrate200. The pattern shown is symmetric and enables the greatest use of thesubstrate and easiest alignment of the heads, however, other patterns ornumbers of regions can also be implemented. It should be appreciatedthat on substrate 200 a wealth of knowledge exists on a single substrateas each of regions 202 may have some property or characteristic of theprocess altered. Thus, the information available for each region as wellas the interaction of each region with previous or subsequent processoperations or materials may be harvested to provide data on an optimummaterial, unit process and/or process sequences in a highly efficientmanner. While FIG. 8 illustrates regions 202 as isolated and notoverlapping, the regions may overlap in one embodiment. In anotherembodiment a region refers to a localized area on a substrate which is,was, or is intended to be used for processing or formation of a selectedmaterial. The region can include one region and/or a series of regularor periodic regions pre-formed on the substrate. The region may have anyconvenient shape, e.g., circular, rectangular, elliptical, wedge-shaped,etc. In one embodiment, the regions are predefined on the substrate.However, the processing may define the regions in another embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating an integrated highproductivity combinatorial (HPC) system in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. HPC system includes a frame 900 supportinga plurality of processing modules. It should be appreciated that frame900 may be a unitary frame in accordance with one embodiment. In oneembodiment, the environment within frame 900 is controlled. Loadlock/factory interface 902 provides access into the plurality of modulesof the HPC system. Robot 914 provides for the movement of substrates(and masks) between the modules and for the movement into and out of theload lock 902. Module 904 may be an orientation/degassing module inaccordance with one embodiment. Module 906 may be a clean module, eitherplasma or non-plasma based, in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention. Any type of chamber or combination of chamber may beimplemented and the description herein is merely illustrative of onepossible combination and not meant to limit the potential chamber orprocesses that can be supported to combine combinatorial processing orcombinatorial plus convention processing of a substrate/wafer.

Module 908 is referred to as a library module in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. In module 908, a plurality of masks, alsoreferred to as processing masks, are stored. The masks may be used inthe dry combinatorial processing modules in order to apply a certainpattern to a substrate being processed in those modules. Module 910includes a HPC physical vapor deposition module in accordance with oneembodiment of the invention. Module 912 is a deposition module, e.g., anALD or CVD module. Modules 910 and/or 912 may include the process headsdescribed herein. It should be appreciated that modules 910 and 912 maybe configured to include multiple process heads where the process headsare all similar, such as the process heads of FIGS. 5A, 5B, or 6, orsome combination of different process heads described herein. Inaddition, the multiple process heads may be used to perform the same ordifferent process operations on a substrate being processed within theprocess module. For example, where different process heads are within aprocess module, some process heads may perform ALD operations, someprocess heads may perform PVD operations and so on. In addition, processheads performing the same operation may vary the processing conditions,parameters, materials, etc. These multiple different operations may beperformed in parallel or serially. Accordingly, numerous combinations ofexperiments may be performed on site isolated regions of a singlesubstrate through the combinatorial processing embodiments with themoveable processing heads described herein. In one embodiment, acentralized controller, i.e., computing device 911, may control theprocesses of the HPC system. Further details of the HPC system aredescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/672,478, and11/672,473. With HPC system, a plurality of methods may be employed todeposit material upon a substrate employing combinatoric processes.

In summary, the embodiments described above may enable combinatorialprocesses to be applied to a substrate in a site isolated manner eitherin parallel, serial-parallel or serial manner. A process head isdisposed within a chamber and opposing a substrate surface can scanradially across the substrate surface. The head is preferably configuredto process a portion (e.g., site isolated region) of the substrate in asubstantially uniform manner without the use of a mask or shutter,however, a mask may be used in certain embodiments. It should beappreciated that where the substrate is not circular, e.g., aquadrilateral or other shape, the head would preferably scan across amaximum width of the quadrilateral, while the substrate is rotated toprovide complete access, but need not be so set up. In addition, thehead can move linearly in combination with orthogonal movement of thesubstrate to minimize the overall the chamber size. The movement of thehead is performed in a manner that maintains the integrity of theprocessing chamber. It should be appreciated that the deposition mayoccur on a blanket substrate or a substrate having structures, patterns,devices or other features defined thereon. In addition the substrate maybe further processed through full substrate conventional techniquesfollowing the combinatorial deposition techniques described above.

Further embodiments described below include a reaction chamber with aradially articulating process head disposed within the chamber, wherethe radially articulating deposition head is capable of processingmultiple regions of a substrate and where the regions are substantiallyisolated from each other. The chamber may have multiple process headsand multiple regions may be processed in a serial manner, a fast serialor a parallel manner. It should be appreciated that the inner wall ofthe process heads may define the regions, while the outer walls providea seal to isolate the regions. In another embodiment, the regions may bepre-defined on the substrate. The chamber may include a rotatablesubstrate support under the process head and the substrate support mayrotate over approximately half of the substrate, e.g., approximately 185degrees. The radially articulating process head has a range of movementover a radius of the substrate. In addition, the process head may movevertical relative to a base of the deposition system. The process headis affixed to an arm driving both radial articulation of the head over atop surface of a substrate in the reaction chamber and orthogonalmovement of the process head relative to a top surface of the substratein one embodiment. A differentially pumped seal is defined by a firsto-ring surrounded by a second o-ring and a cavity between the first andsecond o-rings is evacuated to a pressure greater than a pressure withinthe deposition system and less than an external pressure in order toisolate the chamber form an external surface. The process head includesa base opposing the substrate and a shield surrounding a lower portionof a sidewall extending from the base. In one embodiment the basefunctions as a cathode and the shield functions as an anode for a coldplasma operation. A lower portion of the process head is encompassed bya containment wall configured to exhaust deposition byproducts during adeposition operation in one embodiment.

In another aspect of the invention, a process head having a firstconduit configured to deliver a gas to a surface of a substrate and asecond conduit defined partially by an outer wall encompassing the firstconduit is provided. The second conduit is configured to provide exhaustfor the gas wherein the outer wall of the second conduit acts as abarrier to contain the gas within an inner area defined by the secondconduit. The process head may include a third conduit surrounding thesecond conduit, where the third conduit is configured to provide a fluidbarrier preventing the gas from flowing outside a perimeter of the thirdconduit. The first, second, and third conduits are concentric around acommon axis. A bottom surface of the second conduit is closer to thesurface of the substrate than a bottom surface of the first conduit inone embodiment. In another embodiment, the bottom surface may contactthe substrate. The process head is affixed to an articulating arm insidea reaction chamber where the substrate rotates on a substrate support inone embodiment. A bottom surface of the third conduit extends pastbottom surfaces of the first and second conduits in another embodiment.The bottom surface of the third conduit or the second conduit maycontact the substrate and may be configured as a knife edge. In oneembodiment, the bottom surface of the third conduit is coated with aninert film.

In another embodiment, a moveable process head for site isolateddeposition is provided. A moveable assembly that includes the moveableprocess head, includes an inner wall defining a process region. In oneembodiment, multiple processing regions are formed on one substrate; andan outer wall surrounding a bottom portion of an outer surface of theinner wall contains the processing components to the processing region.In one embodiment a bottom surface of the outer wall extends past abottom surface of the inner wall. In another embodiment the outer wallcontacts a surface of a substrate outside a perimeter of an activedeposition area during a deposition operation. In this embodiment theouter wall may contact a mask disposed over a substrate. A vacuum sourcein fluid communication with an opening of the outer wall is includedwhere the opening enables access to a cavity defined between the outerwall and the inner wall. In another embodiment, the assembly is moveableindependent of the process head. For example, the process head ismoveable in one dimension and the assembly is moveable in one or moredimension in one exemplary embodiment. The moveable assembly may includeone of a target, a showerhead or a cold plasma head. The outer wall andthe inner wall may move independently from each other in a Z direction.The outer wall contacts a mask disposed over a surface of the substratein one embodiment.

In another aspect of the invention a method for multi-region processingon a substrate is provided. The method includes flowing a fluid throughan inner conduit disposed over a region of the substrate for processingthat region and withdrawing fluid from a region encompassing the innerconduit contemporaneously with the flowing. A containment fluid flowsthrough an outer conduit surrounding both the inner conduit and theregion encompassing the inner conduit while providing substantiallyuniform processing to the region on the substrate defined by the innerconduit. The method includes repeating each above mentioned methodoperations for a different region of the substrate in one of a serial,serial-parallel, or parallel manner and subsequently processing thesubstrate through a conventional full wafer process. The method caninclude moving a process head assembly including the inner conduit andthe outer conduit so that the inner conduit is disposed over a nextportion of the substrate as well as radial articulation of thedeposition head and rotation of the substrate. The method can includecontacting a surface of the substrate with a bottom surface of the outerconduit. The moving mentioned above includes rotation of the processhead and linear movement of the substrate in one embodiment. The regionsmay be defined by the process head.

In another aspect of the invention, a method for processing a siteisolated region of a substrate is disclosed. The method includesmodifying a volume of a processing region defined between the showerheadassembly and the site isolated region of the substrate and flowing adeposition fluid through the showerhead. A film is deposited on the siteisolated region of the substrate and excess deposition fluid anddeposition by-products are removed through an area surrounding theshowerhead assembly contemporaneously with the depositing. The volume ofthe processing region may be adjusted by moving the showerhead assemblyrelative to a surface of the substrate in one embodiment. A plasma maybe generated in the processing region to generate material fordepositing onto the surface of the substrate. A vacuum to the areasurrounding the showerhead may be applied to contain or remove fluidsfrom the processing region in one embodiment. Each method operationmentioned above may be repeated for a next site isolated region. In oneembodiment, the regions are processed similarly or with differentspacing between the showerhead and the substrate and wherein thedifferent spacing is determined by one of movement of the showerheadassembly or movement of an inner wall supporting the showerhead assemblywithin an outer wall surrounding the inner wall in one exemplaryembodiment.

In yet another aspect of the invention a reaction chamber that includesa rotating process head disposed within the reaction chamber isprovided. The rotating process head rotates about an axis that isdifferent than an axis of the process head and a substrate supportconfigured to support a substrate under the rotating process head. Thesubstrate support is configured to move the substrate in a planardirection orthogonal to the axis of the processing head.

Any of the operations described herein that form part of the inventionare useful machine operations. The invention also relates to a device oran apparatus for performing these operations. The apparatus can bespecially constructed for the required purpose, or the apparatus can bea general-purpose computer selectively activated or configured by acomputer program stored in the computer. In particular, variousgeneral-purpose machines can be used with computer programs written inaccordance with the teachings herein, or it may be more convenient toconstruct a more specialized apparatus to perform the requiredoperations.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail forpurposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certainchanges and modifications can be practiced within the scope of theappended claims. Accordingly, the present embodiments are to beconsidered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is notto be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified withinthe scope and equivalents of the appended claims. In the claims,elements and/or steps do not imply any particular order of operation,unless explicitly stated in the claims.

1. A moveable process head for site isolated deposition, comprising: aninner wall; a moveable assembly disposed within the inner wall and abovea portion of a surface of a substrate, wherein a site isolated processregion is defined between the inner surface of the inner wall, themoveable assembly, and the portion of the surface of the substrate; andan outer wall spaced apart from and surrounding a lower portion of theinner wall, wherein multiple site isolated process regions can bedefined on the substrate by moving the moveable process head in relationto the substrate.
 2. The process head of claim 1, wherein a bottomsurface of the outer wall extends past a bottom surface of the innerwall.
 3. The process head of claim 1, further comprising: a vacuumsource in fluid communication with a cavity defined between the outerwall and the inner wall to provide one or more exhaust outlets from thesite isolated process region.
 4. The process head of claim 1, whereinthe assembly is moveable independent of a remainder of the process head.5. The process head of claim 1, wherein the process head is moveable inat least two dimensions and the assembly is moveable in one dimension.6. The process head of claim 1, wherein the moveable assembly is one ofa target, a showerhead or a cold plasma head.
 7. The process head ofclaim 1, wherein the process head is a deposition head configured todeposit a layer within the site isolated process region.
 8. The processhead of claim 1, wherein the outer wall and the inner wall moveindependently from each other in a vertical direction relative to theportion of the surface of the substrate.
 9. A semiconductor processingchamber, comprising: a substrate support configured to support asubstrate; a moveable process head disposed over a portion of a surfaceof a substrate, wherein the substrate is held on the substrate support,and wherein the moveable process head comprises an inner wall and amoveable assembly disposed within the inner wall, and wherein a siteisolated process region is defined between the inner surface of theinner wall, the moveable assembly, and the portion of the surface of thesubstrate.
 10. The semiconductor processing chamber of claim 9, whereina shield is spaced apart from and surrounds at least a lower portion ofthe inner wall.
 11. The semiconductor processing chamber of claim 10,wherein the inner wall is moveable in the vertical direction inconjunction with the moveable assembly and relative to the shield tomodify a volume of the site isolated process region.
 12. Thesemiconductor processing chamber of claim 10, wherein the moveableassembly is moveable relative to the inner wall to modify a volume ofthe site isolated process region.
 13. The semiconductor processingchamber of claim 9, wherein the processing chamber is integrated into acluster tool containing multiple processing chambers.
 14. Thesemiconductor processing chamber of claim 13, wherein the otherprocessing chambers of the cluster tool contain at least one of acombinatorial chamber or a conventional processing chamber.
 15. Thesemiconductor processing chamber of claim 13, wherein the multipleprocessing chambers enable variations of processing operations selectedfrom a group consisting of ALD, PVD, CVD, and cold plasma.
 16. Thesemiconductor processing chamber of claim 9, wherein the process headcomprises concentric rings enabling deposition in an inner ring andremoval of fluids through an outer ring during processing of the siteisolated process region.
 17. The semiconductor processing chamber ofclaim 9, wherein the process head moves in a radial direction and thesubstrate support rotates about an axis.
 18. The semiconductor chamberof claim 9, wherein the process head rotates about an axis that isdifferent than a substrate support axis and the substrate support moveslinearly within the chamber.
 19. The semiconductor processing chamber ofclaim 10, wherein the shield and the inner wall move independently fromeach other in the vertical direction.
 20. The semiconductor processingchamber of claim 9, wherein multiple process heads are disposed over thesubstrate, and wherein one of the multiple process heads is configuredto perform a process operation different than another one of themultiple process heads.